Pink Valentine

I know, we’re not even half way through January and I’m already starting the Valentine’s stuff. Don’t worry, I’ll be interspersing it with other stuff, but if I didn’t start now, I’d never get through all the things I want to make! Seriously, I often have SO many more ideas than I actually have time for (a problem I’m hoping won’t go away anytime soon)! But I’ll warn all of you now, there’s just something about Valentine’s Day that brings out the silly puns in me, and this will be one of my few non-silly things. You’ve been warned. Lots of cheesiness to come shortly.

As someone who enjoys sewing, it was fabric that inspired me to make this set. At least the patterned cookies, that is. The love cookie was obviously inspired by Robert Indiana’s famous stamp. But on to the tutorial! Once you have your cookies baked, you’ll want to ice them with a base layer of white icing (I iced 3 with pink for a little contrast). I’ve taken to using a 14-16 second icing to flood my cookies (no border icing) and a toothpick to work the icing out to the edges. I also don’t bother using a tip when flooding my cookies but instead just clip a small amount off the corner of a ziploc bag (what can I say, I don’t have a dishwasher so I find as many ways as possible to get around using more dishes than I must). Be sure to let your cookies dry overnight before decorating.

I’ve seen several people paint roses on cookies, and I’m absolutely in LOVE with the look. I used the amazing Arty McGoo’s technique for painting these, so for the sake of not writing a longer tutorial than I have to, I’ll simply link her video for you here. After I painted the roses, I added a pink border and voila! First design done!

If you iced a few of your cookies with a pink base like I did, you’ll want to use white piping icing for the design. To make the design, simply start piping a line down one of the sides of the cookie. As you’re piping your line, start adding little loops off to one side or the other (or both sides). This design actually looks better if your line isn’t perfectly straight, so don’t worry about making it perfect. Work your way all the way down the cookie, and then start a new line. Continue until the whole cookie is filled in. Pretty easy, right?!

This next design was inspired by this picture. It’s a relatively simple design, but it requires a little extra patience to build up the whole thing. With some pink piping icing (or any color you’d like, really) pipe a line across your cookie. You don’t want a straight line, but something that… meanders… that curves and loops around your cookie. Be sure to leave lots of space on either side of your line. Then, starting at one end, build your design with curls, leaves, flowers, lines, dots… You can add just about anything you want! Be sure to add lots of detail (a full design looks better than a sparse one).

Although rather simple, this last design was probably the toughest for me. Not because it’s actually a tough design, but because I’m pretty sure piping text is my arch-nemesis. This is one of those times I’d sure love a KopyKake! But with a little practice, it’s not too difficult. If you’re talented enough to look at something and pipe it, go for it. I, however, am not that talented. I can’t paint super well either, but it’s certainly the lesser of the evils for me. I started by pulling up the picture on my laptop so I’d have a point of reference. Using some watered-down yellow gel food coloring, I painted the design on my cookies with a small brush. If you mess up, you can use a slightly damp paper towel to “erase” the food coloring. Be careful about doing this too many times or with a very damp paper towel as this can eat away at the icing and cause craters. Once you’re happy with your design, pipe over it with your icing. I used a pink icing that was just a little less stiff than piping icing, and worked the icing into the design with a toothpick. Once the lettering was done, I added a few tiny hearts… just for good measure.

Be sure to let all of your cookies dry overnight before packaging or stacking.